Jason Berger experiments with apples, bananas and dragon fruit to make wine. His father, Steve, (not pictured) grows a variety of unusual fruits in the family's garden, including dragon fruit.ROSE PALMISANO, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Organic fruit wines

Jason Berger has tried several types of organic fruit he ferments to make wine including bananas, boysenberries, coconut and pineapples. Ready-to-drink at his home are his apple, honey and dragon fruit wines.

Pitahaya: This wine made of dragon fruit is sweet and light on the palate – reminiscent of a viognier. On its own, this wine is perfect for a summer evening but could also be used to make pretty tasty sangria.

Apple: This wine is a great cider cold but could also be warmed for a perfect winter drink. The aroma and flavors of this wine would pair well with a cinnamon stick and a crackling fire.

Mead: This wine is made of honey and has a rich, sweet flavor. It is best when served cold.

Jason Berger spent much of his life minding the rules, avoiding change and finding comfort in logic, so nurturing an artistic talent that requires risk-taking and experimentation came as a surprise for the Huntington Beach resident.

The 29-year-old is an at-home winemaker in his free time, but his take on the hobby is unique: He forgoes fermenting grapes and instead experiments with other organic fruit and ingredients.

So far, yellow pitahaya, apples, bananas, boysenberries and honey are among his proven successes.

Figs and watermelons have been recorded as failures.

The fun is in the experimentation, and the satisfaction comes when the first sip of a new recipe spreads a smile across his face instead of eliciting a wrinkle from his nose.

"I'm very talented at some things but nothing that gave me this kind of reward," Berger said.

Berger is an assistant manager of California Imports, a car dealership in Huntington Beach, where he oversees the finance and administration departments. He started trying out wine recipes two years ago after he said he couldn't find a commercial wine that satisfied his palate.

"I kept trying wine and I kept being disappointed, especially with red," he said. "So I wanted to make my own."

The idea for his first wine was sparked by his father's hobby – cultivating exotic and rare fruit trees.

Steve Berger has been raising tropical and subtropical fruits in the backyard of the Huntington Beach home where the Bergers have lived for the past 17 years.

Along the wall, the vine-like appendages of a cactus tree twist toward the sky.

They are not bearing fruit now, but when they do, some have a yellow, sweeter, variety, and others produce a red, more tart, fruit.

Pitahaya, also called dragon fruit, is native to Mexico and Central and South America but can thrive in some areas of Orange County, Berger said.

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